VALE OF GEOFFREY OF BOUILLON. 
743 
the climate, the scene, exhibiting such perfect beauty; and the 
associations connected with every feature of that beauty, being 
like the expression of “ joys that are past” on a lovely coun¬ 
tenance, by deepening the interest, doubled its charms. In our 
progress up the Bosphorus, the European side displayed an 
almost uninterrupted chain of buildings, stretching to within a 
few miles of our destination. They were interspersed with pa¬ 
laces belonging to the Sultan, others the property of a sister of 
the late sovereign, and various costly mansions the summer- 
residences of opulent persons, but Turks and Christians. These 
country houses of the monarch are usually white, gaily painted 
in arabesque heightened with gold. Those of his Ottoman 
subjects, are generally a dusky red; while the Armenians, how¬ 
ever wealthy they may be, are obliged to live within gloomy 
walls, black as coffins. The fine verdant back-grounds, giving 
relief to these variegated edifices, present terraced gardens rising 
even to the very tops of the hills; whose gracefully undulating 
line, thus clothed in fruits and flowers, breaks occasionally into 
beautiful little vales, then swelling again, runs on till it joins 
the romantic wildness of the Cyanean rocks. Beyukderry lies 
in the most luxuriant of these vales, possessing a particularly 
picturesque wooded scenery covering each side of its valley, 
and crossed by a magnificent aqueduct. Groves also, of the 
most umbrageous plane-trees, give shelter to hundreds of coffee¬ 
drinking parties ; who resort hither in the summer to be rural, 
and sit, senseless as the tulips they resemble, in erect rows, 
chewing their opium, or smoking the hookar. But this valley 
has another character of renown : it was here, they tell me, that 
Geoffrey of Bouillon so long lay encamped with his crusaders. 
After a row of two hours, we landed in the beautiful bay of 
